• After earthquake, Iran says it will build more nuclear reactors in region

    EPA / Mohamad Fatemi

    A woman sits on rubble in Shonbeh, Bushehr province, in southern Iran on Tuesday after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake devastated villages, killed 37 people and injured more than 900. Despite sitting on an earthquake hotbed, Iran said it would continue to build nuclear reactors.

    By Yeganeh Torbati, Reuters

    Iran plans to build more nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone coastal area, Iranian media said on Wednesday, a day after a strong tremor struck the region close to its only existing such plant.

    Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake hit 55 miles southeast of the port of Bushehr, killing 37 people and injuring more than 900 as it flattened small villages. The dead included eight children under the age of 10.

    But the nuclear power station 11 miles south of Bushehr was unaffected, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built the facility.

    Tehran has repeatedly rejected safety concerns about Bushehr, which is located in a highly seismic area on Iran's gulf coast and began operations in 2011 after decades of delays.

    The head of the Islamic state's Atomic Energy Organization said hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built there.

    EPA / Abedin Taherkenareh

    The Bushehr nuclear power station is shown in 2010, a year before it opened. Iran says the reactor was not damaged in Tuesday's powerful earthquake, but its location atop a fault zone has caused concern. Nonetheless, the country says it will continue to build nuclear plants in the region.

    "This earthquake had no impact on the Bushehr nuclear power plant installation," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state television late on Tuesday in comments published by the semi-official Mehr News Agency on Wednesday.

    "Not only was the power plant not producing electricity or sending it to the grid at the time, but even while operating the Bushehr power plant has been designed to withstand earthquakes of more than 8.0 on the Richter scale," he said.

    The Bushehr site is capable of holding six power reactors and construction of two more units of at least 1,000 megawatts will start in the "near future" there, he said. Iran has identified 16 sites elsewhere in the country suitable for other atomic plants.

    Iran sits on major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes, including a 6.6-magnitude quake in 2003 that flattened the southeastern city of Bam and killed more than 25,000 people. In August, more than 300 people were killed when two quakes struck the country's northwest.

    Dozens of aftershocks were detected in the hours following the initial quake, and a 5.2-magnitude quake struck on Wednesday with an epicenter 65 miles from Bushehr, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

    About 92 villages were affected by Tuesday's quake, said Mahmoud Mozaffar, a Red Crescent official, Iran's ISNA news agency reported. About 120 people had injuries severe enough to be admitted to hospital, Iranian officials said.

    About 800 homes were destroyed, said Hassan Ghadami of Iran's crisis-management organization. Many village homes are built out of mud brick, which can crumble easily.

    Initial damage was estimated at $43 million, provincial official Shapour Rostami said.

    The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday that Iranian authorities had made no request for international assistance. Iran's Red Crescent had sent 100 relief workers and three helicopters from neighboring provinces to the area, OCHA said.

    Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

    At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

    Launch slideshow

    Related:

    PhotoBlog: Earthquake kills at least 37 in Iran

    'Devastating' quake strikes near Iran's nuclear plant

    Diplomat: Iran, West 'a long way apart'

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • At least 33 dead in Mexico City skyscraper explosion

    The death toll has risen to 32 in Mexico City after an explosion blasted the lower floors of a skyscraper housing the headquarters of state oil monopoly Pemex. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Kari Huus, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The death toll from a powerful explosion in the Mexico City skyscraper complex housing the offices of state oil monopoly Pemex rose to at least 33, company and government officials said Friday.

    Twenty men and 12 women were killed, the company said — while 121 were injured, 52 of whom remain in hospital. 

    Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto arrived at the Pemex administration complex by helicopter Thursday night to supervise rescue operations, Pemex and the news agency La Prensa reported. Hundreds of Mexican military forces were sent to the complex to "preserve security," officials told newspaper El Universal.

    Rescue crews had searched most of the area damaged by the blast by Friday afternoon, said Attorney General Jesus Murillo said. But he added that survivors or more victims could still be found in the most unstable parts, which had not yet been fully checked.

    Emilio Lozoya Austin, director general of Pemex, which is short for Petrõleos Mexicanos, told Reuters Friday the the company was "working with the best teams in Mexico and from overseas" to find the cause of the explosion.

    He was flying home from a business trip to Asia when the blast occured. He said he extended his condolences "to all the families of Pemex workers who have lost their loved ones."

    The explosion took place in the basement garage of the auxiliary building, next to the company's 52-floor tower in a busy commercial and residential area, said Eduardo Sánchez, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

    Stringer/Mexico/Reuters

    An injured woman is transferred to a stretcher outside the headquarters of state oil giant Pemex in Mexico City on Thursday.

    "They're conducting a tour of the building and the area adjacent to the blast site to verify if there are any still trapped so they can be rescued immediately," Sanchez said Thursday.

    A government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said preliminary findings suggested the blast was caused by aged boiler exploding in a building next to the tower, Reuters reported.

    The plaster ceiling of the basement collapsed, a spokesman for the local emergency agency said. He described conditions in the tower as "delicate."

    The main floor and the mezzanine of the auxiliary building were heavily damaged, along with windows as far as three floors up. 

    A man who was on the ground floor when the explosion occurred told Forum TV that the first casualties were taken to a clinic in the adjacent office tower, where several thousand people work.

    "It shook the building, and then we were evacuated," he said.

    Company touted safety record
    News of the blast came toward the end of the business day — just a few hours after the company had sent two messages on Twitter celebrating how much it had "reduced our accident rate in recent years," announcing that its "safety indicators" exceeded international standards:

    Twitter.com

    Twitter.com

    "An explosion took place in the B2 building of the administrative center," Pemex tweeted just after 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET). "There are injuries and damage on the ground floor and mezzanine," it said, promising further information as it became available.

    Pemex initially said the building had been evacuated because of a problem with its electricity supply. It then said there had been an explosion, but it didn't give the cause.

    Milenio TV via NBC News

    The scene at Pemex headquarters in Mexico City on Thursday after an explosion. There was no official explanation for the blast.

    Television images showed people being evacuated — some on office chairs and gurneys. Emergency crews loaded people on stretchers into helicopters and airlifted them out of the area.

    "The place shook, we lost power and suddenly there was debris everywhere," Cristian Obele told Milenio news network. "Colleagues were helping us out of the building."

    Jose Cuellar, a mechanic who works near the complex, said he was repairing a car when an explosion rocked his entire workshop.

    "We went to see and saw people coming out injured," Cuella, 45,  told El Universal. "Other people were carrying them."

    Edgar Zuniga Jr. and M. Alex Johnson of NBC News, Telemundo and Reuters contributed to this report.

  • Survivors of Bangladesh factory fire tell their story

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Sabita Rani, 35, sits in her kitchen in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30, 2012. Rani, an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Rani, the factory manager did not let workers escape after hearing the fire bell, but Rani jumped from the third floor to save herself after her colleagues managed to break a window.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Tahera Begum, 25, lies inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Begum is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. Begum became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping a factory fire on Nov. 24, according to Begum's husband.

    The Daily Star has written about Begum here

    Related PhotoBlog posts:

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Harun-or-Rashid, 24, sits with his wife Reshma, left, 20, inside their room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Harun and Reshma escaped the Tazreen Fashions garment factory fire that killed more than 100 workers on Nov. 24. According to Reshma, the factory's workers rarely performed fire drills. Reshma broke her right leg after jumping from the third floor to escape the fire. Harun said they will leave their job and return to their hometown in Munshiganj.

    Andrew Biraj / Reuters

    Ale Noor, 35, sits inside her room in Savar, Bangladesh, Nov. 30. Noor is an operator at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory. According to Noor, she broke her left leg after jumping from the fourth floor to escape a factory fire on Nov. 24. Noor earns 3,000 Taka, about $37, per month, but says the factory's workers have had to protest to receive pay each month as the factory's management never paid salaries on time.

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  • Garment factory fire victims mourned in Karachi

    Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

    A Pakistani man mourns as he waits in the EDHI Morgue to identify his relative who was killed in a garment factory fire in Karachi.

    Athar Hussain / Reuters

    Relatives and residents carry the coffin of a woman, who was killed in a fire at a garment factory, for burial during her funeral in Karachi on Sept. 13.

    Fareed Khan / AP

    People comfort a woman who lost a family member in a garment factory fire, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan on Sept. 13.

    Shakil / AP

    Maryam Aslam weeps while enquiring about her missing brother who worked in a garment factory, in Karachi. Pakistani officials say the death toll from devastating factory fires that broke out in two major cities has killed hundreds.

    Two separate blazes in Pakistan broke out Tuesday night, one at a garment factory in the southern port city of Karachi and another at a shoe manufacturer in the eastern city of Lahore. 

    Pakistan registered murder charges against factory bosses and government officials over the deaths of the more than 289 people in the country's worst industrial disaster, police said.

    EPA

    People survey the undamaged area of a garment factory which was hit by a fire in Karachi on Sept. 13. The devastating fire on Sept. 11 in Pakistan's commercial hub of Karachi killed at least 280 people, as the deadly blaze raised fresh concerns about workplace safety.

    Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

    The hand of dead Pakistani garment factory worker is seen at a hospital following a fire in a garment factory in which at least 280 people died in Karachi. More than 310 people have perished in fires that gutted factories in Pakistan's two largest cities, in tragedies that prompted calls for an overhaul of poor industrial safety standards, officials said.

    Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

    A Pakistani man weeps for his relative who was killed in a garment factory fire in Karachi on September 13, 2012.

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  • After 23 years, British government apologizes over 1989 soccer disaster

    Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

    Children lay floral tributes at a memorial to the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough soccer disaster at Anfield stadium after the publication of the independent report into the incident on Sept. 12, 2012.

    By ITV News and Reuters

    LONDON – Britain’s government apologized Wednesday after an independent report said there had been failures and cover-ups in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough soccer disaster in which 96 spectators died after a crowd crush.


    There were gasps from lawmakers as Prime Minister David Cameron announced the findings of the report, which marked the culmination of a 23-year campaign the families of victims of Britain's worst sporting disaster.

    "On behalf of the government, and indeed our country, I am profoundly sorry,” Cameron said, adding: "It was wrong that the families have had to wait for so long - and fight so hard - just to get to the truth."

    The victims died in an overcrowded fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, northern England, minutes prior to the start of a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

    It was a tragedy that changed the face of soccer in Britain and ushered in a new era of modern, all-seated stadiums. Britain was shocked by harrowing images of young fans crushed against metal fences, bodies lying on the pitch and spectators using wooden placards as makeshift stretchers on a warm spring afternoon.

    Read full coverage at ITV News

    The report concluded police had sought to blame the Liverpool fans, portraying them as aggressive, drunk and ticketless and bent on packing into the already crowded stadium.

    "The tragedy should never have happened," the report's authors said in a statement. "There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath there were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame onto the fans."

    Senior police edited their officers' witness statements from the day to paint them in a less damaging light, the report said. Their emergency response was flawed and badly organized.

    While inquiries found hooliganism played no part in the disaster, the police crowd management plan was preoccupied with preventing disorder, the report said.

    Liverpool fans had been tainted by the Heysel stadium disaster in Belgium in 1985. Fighting inside that stadium led to Juventus fans being crushed against a wall that collapsed. Six Liverpool fans and 33 supporters of the Italian team died.

    The real danger at Hillsborough lay in the emergency services' poor planning and a stadium that failed to meet minimum safety standards, the report said. Its capacity was overstated and previous crushes at Hillsborough had been ignored.

    The disaster is still an open wound in Liverpool, the port city of nearly half a million people that is passionate about soccer and has fielded players such as Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard.

    All the victims during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, held at the neutral ground of Sheffield Wednesday, were Liverpool supporters.

    Trevor Hicks, of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said: "We feel vindicated... We have had all sorts of accusations thrown at us over the 23 years." He added: "If today says one thing to the world, we are vindicated in our search for the truth."

    In the aftermath of the disaster, a government spokesman incensed families by blaming the disaster on drunken fans. The report found no reason for the coroner's decision to take blood alcohol samples from all of the victims, including children. "The pattern of alcohol consumption among those who died was unremarkable," the report said. "The weight placed on alcohol levels was... inappropriate and misleading."

    The disaster was also one of the low points for Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group, currently reeling from a phone hacking scandal that has led to criminal charges against former senior executives and reporters. Its tabloid title, The Sun, accused Liverpool fans of stealing from the dying, urinating on policemen and beating up an officer who was attempting to resuscitate a victim. The newspaper's executives have since apologized for the story, which was found to be untrue. The editor at the time, Kelvin MacKenzie, apologized again on Wednesday - although his words were unlikely to end a long-standing boycott of the newspaper by consumers in Liverpool.

    The Hillsborough Independent Panel, headed by the Bishop of Liverpool Rt. Rev. James Jones, was set up in 2010 to oversee the release of thousands of previously unseen documents related to the incident. 

    ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Family to sue over suicide after Japan tsunami, nuke meltdown

    Slideshow: Triple tragedy for Japan

    Kuni Takahashi / Kuni Takahashi

    An earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear meltdown -- residents of Japan's northeast coast suffered through three intertwined disasters after a massive 9.0 magnitude temblor struck off the coast on March 11, 2011.

    Launch slideshow

    By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

    The family of a 58-year-old Japanese woman who set herself on fire after the 2011 quake and tsunami will file a lawsuit against the operator of a nuclear plant that went into meltdown after the giant wave hit, local media reports say.

    They will seek $910,000 in damages in the death of Hamako Watanabe from the Tokyo Electric Power Co., according to The Japan Times and The Mainichi. They plan to file the lawsuit -- which would be the first over a suicide linked to the nuclear crisis -- on May 18 in Fukushima District Court.


    Her husband, Mikio Watanabe, 61, said his wife suffered depression in the aftermath of the accident on March 11, 2011.

    The couple lived about 25 miles from the Fukushima power plant and their home had been designated as being within a planned evacuation zone. She killed herself at a garbage incinerator after going back to clean the house in Kawamata, The Japan Times said, citing sources. 

    Nearly a year after an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, Fukushima City residents fear the radiation is spreading outside of the government mandated exclusion zone. The government has asked residents to bury radiated soil in their own backyards, but how dangerous is the dirt and where should it go? NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports.

    "The accident changed everything in our lives,” Watanabe told The Mainichi. “I decided to go to court because I thought no more victims should cry themselves to sleep."

    The couple had moved around after the 9.0 quake and ensuing tsunamis struck, triggering meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and leaving nearly 16,000 dead.

    Slideshow: Devastation in Japan after quake

    AP

    A 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggers a tsunami, causing enormous damage and killing thousands.

    Launch slideshow

    As of last Saturday, Japan had shut down the last of its 50 usable nuclear reactors amid strong opposition from the public and local governments to keeping them up and running, The Associated Press reported.

    Tsunami town's fishermen vow to 'bring joy back'

    Hamako Watanabe's workplace was shuttered after the tsunami, and she began to show signs of insomnia and had a poor appetite. A group of lawyers representing victims of the nuclear crisis said her depression and suicide were due to the nuclear disaster, The Mainichi reported.

    'Can it be the end of nuclear power?' Japan to shut down last reactor

    Tepco declined to make comment to the newspapers, though the family notified the utility on April 20 of its intention to file the lawsuit. Tepco said in a letter dated May 1 that it would consider the matter.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

     

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  • Among the charred ruins of a refugee camp, a smile remains

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Refugee boys from Myanmar look for items to salvage on Feb. 24 from the ruins of a burnt mosque in the Um-Piam refugee camp after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23 .

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Refugees make a temporary shelter on Feb. 24 at the ruins of their burnt home at the Um-Piam refugee camp after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    A refugee boy from Myanmar pauses from salvaging small items on Feb. 24 in the ruins of his burnt home at the Um-Piam refugee camp after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    A refugee boy from Myanmar searches for small items in ruins of his burnt home on Feb. 24 at the Um-Piam refugee camp after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    A huge fire yesterday at a refugee camp along the border of Myanmar and Thailand destroyed about 5,000 homes. We published the photos of the flames engulfing the bamboo shacks yesterday in PhotoBlog. Due to the flammable nature of the bamboo, the fire quickly spread. The camp is home to about 17,000 Myanmar refugees fleeing fighting between the army and ethnic minorities.

    According to AP:

    No casualties were reported from the fire that destroyed about a fifth of the dwellings at the Umpiem Mai camp in Tak province, Thai district official Pot Ruworanan said.

    The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which coordinates aid for the refugrees, said on its website that an undetermined number of people suffered burns and three mosques and two nursery schools were destroyed.

    Read the full story.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    A refugee woman from Myanmar holds her child after receiving some aid at the Um-Piam refugee camp on Feb. 24 after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Refugees are seen in ruins of the Um-Piam refugee camp on Feb. 24 after a fire engulfed big part of it near Mae Sot on Feb. 23.